Do You Support a Change to 3 Letter Set Codes?

We're confronting a fundamental issue that's small and large at the same time. It's not trivial so read on.

We're working on a new pics torrent. I needed to update the sets codes list to include the newest sets, so I googled the wikipedia for MTG set codes. I found out that for consistency some time ago WOTC changed the naming so that every set had a three letter code... but currently, MWS sets are a mixture of one, two, and three letter codes, the way it has always been. "A" has always meant "Alpha".

Goblin Hero brought this up years ago, that this situation should be changed.

He was ahead of his time perhaps, I forget how I felt about the subject. I may have been against it. It could be because I didn't want to break MWS for the large number of people that use it.

Things have changed though. There is no longer an official MWS Autoupdate base, or at least there hasn't been in a while. Detonator has recently relied on a version of MHD's base, which is based on GH's base. And the only themes regularly updated are GH's. And GH also controls MWSPA. And I control the torrent.

This means it is within our grasp to change everything over, in one fell swoop, so that nothing breaks.

Almost nothing anyway, there are difficulties. Here is what will happen.

First, the base will change. The new base will have official three letter codes.The result is that some pics will quit working. Your picture sets need to be renamed to match the base.Unfortunately, the sets on Rapidshare and MediaFire can't just be renamed. Still, once you get the pics unzipped onto your hard drive, the sets can be brought into line with a simple batch renamer we could write.

Your themes will quit working properly too, for some sets.The solution is to get a new theme. This is to be expected, since a new theme is required every time, even if only one new set is released.

The torrent files will have to be renamed. That's OK, because we're working on the new one anyway.MWSPA and its support folders will have to be edited. I suppose GH is up to the task without too much difficulty.

Any other software like the Deckbuilder and Card Generator may have to be edited, I'm not sure how difficult this will be.

Since we defacto control the new bases, themes and pics sets anyway, this is easy to coordinate.

Please think carefully about it and make up your own mind. I've set the poll so you can change your vote.

Though personally I see no reason not to proceed with the change, I've tried to anticipate all the negatives, and I've probably overlooked something. I need you to let me know what I've missed.

At some point in the future this was going to be necessary anyways. You guys are the number one source on the internet for Magic set pictures, and people use the pics here for other programs and proxies. What you are proposing would be beneficial to thousands, if not more, in the long run, and have the benefit of being compatible with WoTC the standard. I vote yes.

Hi,I cast my lot with YES. MWS is not the most user friendly program. Anything that could be done to synchronize the torrent with the masterbase would be a huge help. Deck files can be rewritten, as well as themes. I say have a go at it.

Well, a tool could always be developed (either within MWS or externally) that can parse the old mwDeck and mwInventory files and fix any of the issues the renaming would cause. Then again, I say this assuming that this is an easy thing to accomplish.

Ok, so I've got a program to do the deck parsing and folder renaming. Where shall I post it? I don't think it should be floating around in public until it has been approved for use.I'll need a complete up-to-date list of 2 to 3 letter code conversions, including promos and such.The program uses a simple text file with the Old Code, New Code, and Set Name to work. It will go through the directory chosen and depending on which button is pressed, it will convert from 2->3 or 3->2 for either your mwDeck files or the picture subdirectories.

An extremely important thing to note is that if Conflux ends up having the 3 letter code of CON, we are going to have very big problems storing those cards on Windows systems (possibly others too) since CON is a reserved DOS keyword meaning that no directory can ever be created with that name. And there are no workarounds other than calling it something else like CFX or something silly like that.

All the sets used by the MWS. There are 3 codes for each core edition as there used to be different naming conventions in the past in different masterbases.You can also check out the 3 letter codes at Wikipedia